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Collecting Community, Teams Go to Bat for Young Fire Victim

The simple act of grabbing a pencil and putting words on paper has turned a young boy’s despair into some moments he’ll never forget.

Loren Smith, a nine-year-old Oakland A’s fan was feeling low after a wildfire destroyed his family’s home and with it, all of his baseball cards and autographs.

“The day after the fire, he was hiding underneath the couch crying about all the stuff he lost and his grandma just said, hey, get it out,'” Tait Smith, Loren’s father, told KGO-TV.

From KGO-TV

As we reported last week, Loren wrote that letter about what he lost. His aunt then sent the letter to a station photographer. A reporter then tweeted the heart-wrenching, hand-printed note to her followers. Within hours, it had gone viral. A’s management promised to give Loren some memorabilia. Other teams at the major and minor league level sprang into action. A post on the Sports Collectors Daily Facebook page sent collectors spurred collectors to pack up boxes of cards and send them to Loren in are of the team. Topps sent a package, too.

It all came together on Friday, when the A’s hosted Loren, his family and several media outlets to turn over the gifts. Loren also got to meet a player—who signed and handed over his game-worn jersey. He was also promised some other big surprises by the team.

There were so many gifts Loren is sharing them with friends and other youngsters who also lost collections in the fire.

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for more than 30 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]